The Common Pantheon
Seven
Gods are worshipped by the
Common Church in
Moray under recognised pacts sovereign or congregational. Three of these are known as the Great Ones, mighty and benevolent, and four are lesser divinities, important, but not so powerful.
The Great Ones
The Great Ones have powerful and wide-ranging pacts which bind their cult to the Common Church and to the state of Moray. Their worship is not merely sanctioned, but promoted by the state, and their have shrines, cloisters and clerists throughout the Queendom.
The Lesser Gods
Even after centuries of history, the cults of the lesser gods are more limited in scope and influence than those of the Great Ones. They are widely, but not universally worshipped.
- The Bounteous Lord is a god of wealth and plenty, traditionally worshipped by countryfolk, but not much by residents of the cities. This has changed, however, as an urban, mercantile middle class has emerged and embraced his plutocratic aspects.
- The Heavenly General is a god of soldiers and commanders, little worshipped by civilians, save during times of war.
- The Sacred Balm is a god of healing, favoured by physicians, midwives, cunning folk and scholars. Most folk will only invoke the Balm if they or their loved ones are sick.
- The Laughing Knight is a god of the young and the innocent, mostly worshipped by teachers and prayed to by parents in need.
Other Gods
The Distant
The Distant is the name given to the eighteen gods of the
First and
Second Enneads. These deities are universally revered as the creators and shapers of the world of
Galath, but they are never worshipped, a relationship reserved for the lesser deities which move upon the world and make pacts with mortals. Nonetheless, the Common Church maintains small shrines at which modest offerings of the elements can be offered tothese gods in recognition of their cosmological role.
The Fallen
The
Fallen are gods who are not openly and publically worshipped, but whose worship is both organised and not proscribed by the state. Even a single worshipper in communion and congregation with a spirit is enough to make it a god, although not a very impressive one, and many communities and even large households have shrines to their particular 'small gods'. Those whose cult manages to grow beyond the most local level were often more powerful under a previous, now broken pact, and thus remember how to grow. It is because of these former pacts that they are known as 'Fallen', and the name is extended to any minor god with wider influence.
Three of these Fallen have created a substantial and organised following within and across Moray.
The Forbidden
The
Forbidden are the gods whose worship is both a secular crime and a religious malfeasance within a given state. Sometimes these are the patrons of former or neighbouring regimes, or gods whose tenets are deemed harmful. Four deities serve as models for the four main types of Forbidden in Moray: Rivals to the Seven, patrons of warlocks, rebels, and the malevolent.
- Rivals are those gods who threaten the worship of the Seven by representing one or more of their aspects. The Lady of the Waters is a god of the wilds, a domain reserved for the Antlered King.
- Warlockry is distrusted, in part because it is difficult to regulate, and in particular divine patrons are seen as a threat to the established role of the clergy. The Night Visitor is a typical divine warlock patron, offering odd parcels of power instead of the divine magic of a cleric.
- The Kingmaker stands as a model of gods of change and rebellion, whose tenets are a threat to social order. The patron powers of neighbouring countries, such as Harbrath, are also seen in this light.
- Malevolent gods are those whose tenets promote direct social harm. The Wayward Child, a god of murder, is typical of this kind.
Comments